Wasting Our Moments
by Merina 2
Summary: Elphaba and Galinda argue the pros and cons of their favoured evening entertainments. Broom cupboards, books, and scandalacious Winkie princes are discussed. A getting-to-know-you, girl-talk moment from the early stages of their friendship. Gelphie friendship, Flinda/Gliyero, very mild Fiyeraba, oneshot.


"I believe that spending every evening of your term at Shiz so far with your nose buried in a boring, stuffy old book from seven till ten is an utterly _hideotous_ waste of time."

I glanced up. My crisp new _Encyclopaedia of Notable Magical Definitions_ had been claiming my rapt attention for a good half hour or so – now, however, my roommate was providing a distraction. She stood with hands on hips and chin jutted high across the dormitory room from me, wearing a wafting, tent-sized nightgown and a scowl.

I raised my eyebrows. _Hm. This was new_. A scowl as bad-tempered, as grouchy, as downright uglyas this one; it didn't suite her. Didn't suite those features that made even Nessa's pale in comparison.

"Oh?" I responded to her little outburst, flipping a page to begin on chapter seventeen. "And why might that be?"

She let out her breath in a gush.

"Elphie, you just _don't get it_…"

"Clearly. But please, enlighten me."

She huffed a sigh, sweeping across the room in a cloud of strawberry-coloured silk and scrambling up onto my bed beside me. She kicked her heels off, letting them tumble to the floor. _Oz, really. _I muttered a spell, sending them skidding across the room to their proper position next to my own boots by the door.

"Ok. spend every single silly day at this place in lectures, don't we?"

"That is correct."

"Well, then!" she burst out, throwing her arms up in the air. "Why not _enjoy _your free evenings, whilst you can!"

I sighed, closing my book with a quiet snap_. _"I happen to _enjoy_ learning, Miss Upland. Which, I might add, is the sole reason I came to Shiz in the first place." I eyed her dubiously over the top of my book. "Unlike some of us, it seems."

She squirmed a bit in her seat, suddenly very interested in her fingernails. "Well – well, what's so wrong with that? After all, _Fiyero_ thinks –"

"That's a first."

She slapped my shoulder, with about as much strength as a newborn puppy, whilst I cackled.

"All right, all right! Please, continue. I'm intrigued to hear what that idiot can come up with when he sees fit to use a brain cell, once in a while."

She glowered. "_Fiyero _thinks there is a lot of merit in relaxing yourself, once in a while. 'Recharging your batteries' – that's what he calls it."

I snorted. _Could he be any more full of himself? _"Better to be 'recharging your batteries' with a couple of quality books in-hand than some lumbering, hormone-driven prince feeling you up in a broom cupboard."

She stifled a squeal, widening mock-horrified eyes at me. I hid my grin in _Chapter Seventeen: Linguification _whilst she whispered, "You didn'tfollow Fiyero and I last night, did you -?!"

"Fiyero and _me,_" I corrected."_You_ is the subject."

"_Elphie –!_"

"And of course not, I did nothing of the sort. I merely placed a tracking spell on the both of you, in case that pitiful excuse for royalty should see fit to drag you farther outside the grounds than is permitted again –"

"Shh!" Her hands clapped over my mouth. "Really, Elphie, your tongue. Someone might hear!"

"Let them," I said, opening my book to unfold my dog-eared page and turning it idly. "At this point, I believe it is clear that nothing could spoil that reputation of yours."

"Yes, but talk like that is so…so…!" She struggled to find words, hands gesticulating into various shapes but forming no meaning. I turned another page idly.

"Common?" I supplied, but she shook her head, ringlets bouncing.

"No, that's the wrong word…it just so…oh, I don't know, so…immodest! So improper!"

She let out her breath in a gush, fixing me with a tentative smile.

"And so…so…I don't know…" She hesitated, whilst I watched her, truly intrigued now.

"Go on. I'm listening." It was the truth, for once.

Her teeth raked her lower lip, nibbling gently. "I don't know, Elphie, I'm not like you with words. It's sort of…new. And sort offorbidden_. _Really, I don't know what Mumsie would say if she heard you!_" _

A thousand cutting remarks came to my mind in respone to that_ –_ but I bit them down, nodding slowly instead and trying to look like I understood. _Hm._ There was more to this Miss Upland every day, it seemed…

Galinda seemed to have relaxed, most likely relieved that I had no more cutting, suggestive remarks to retort with.

"I know you will hate me for saying so," she hedged, bluebell eyes cautious, now. "But I do envy Avaric ever so much, sometimes."

My jaw dropped unwittingly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Avaric," she murmured.

"Yes, I failed to miss _that_ unfortunate part –"

"- no, Elphie, listen…" She inched across the coverlets and reaching for my hands. They were tiny against my huge, skeletal-thin ones; a kitten's paws.

"See, Avaric has made life so easy for himself. He says the most dreadful things, drops the crudest innuendos and tells the filthiest jokes, though he is born as high class as I am!"

"And?" I prompted, bewildered as to where this was going, but attentive none the less. Her thumb caressed circles across my palms absent-mindedly, round and round.

"And…" she fumbled, struggling for words again. "And I can't. I mustn't. I mean, I'm Gilikin. I'm Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands. Mumsie is more renowned than Madam Morrible! I must be quiet, and demure, and virtuous – I must uphold my family's honours and traditions, I must marry whom they see fit to be suitable for me, I must not drink too much, or curse, or gamble, I must not indulge in any activities unfit for a girl of my status, I must – I must –!"

"Behave at all times like the modest, well-meaning young woman you are," I finished, crisply. She beamed.

"Oh Elphie, you don't really think that about me, do you?"

"What I think of you continues to change with every passing day," I muttered, but she made no reply, already off on another train of thought.

"I am rather good at it, I suppose. Playing my part. And I do enjoy it, mostly, I do – I truly _want _to be seen as good, the good…goodliest girl I can be."

I resisted the urge to object to yet another abomination of language.

"But you see, Elphie…sometimes…"

She bent closer, intent, face lit with excitement again. "Sometimes I look at Avaric, at how wild he is, and I just want to join in! I want to drink as much as Milla did at Pfanee's birthday party, I want to curse as dreadfully as Crope does, I want to gamble like Fiyero, I want to…to…"

She was scarlet in the face now, and I raised my eyebrows; opened my mouth to say it myself –

"_Miss Elphaba -!_"

"- oh, spit it out, you little idiot," I rolled my eyes, ignoring her scandalized expression and pretending to drag her hands away from her ears where they had flown in panic.

"Please, _please _do not say it!" she begged, mock-slapping out at me, but I dodged away. Her giggles mingled with my own cackling as I scrambled away down the bed.

"Elphie!" she called after me as I clambered off the edge and padded across the floor towards the bathroom. "Oh Oz, you can't possibly want to go to sleep _yet._"

"If I recall correctly," I called over my shoulder, entering the bathroom and reaching for my toothbrush, "we have an early start tomorrow. Don't you remember? I believe Doctor Dillamond said the test would begin at eight sharp, and we wouldn't want to wake late and find we had no time to curl our hair or primp our lashes to perfection, now, would we…?"

"Oh, drat that silly test," she cursed miserably, skipping up behind me to meet my reflection in the mirror. "I had so many plans for the weekend, but no, we must slouch our way through a horrendible question paper all Saturday morning instead."

She slumped against my shoulder, a tumble of sunshine curls. I pushed her away, bending to rinse my mouth. She sighed, leaning against the doorframe instead and plucking at the ribbon on her nightdress sleeve. A few moments of silence passed, whilst I washed my face, dried my hands, tidied my towel and toothbrush. It was only when I was padding back to my bed, Galinda behind me, that she spoke again.

"Elphie?"

I laid my precious book on the bedside table, careful that it sat a safe distance away from the water jug. "Last question, Miss Upland."

"Mm-hm…" She sidled up beside me, arm paddling through mine as I drew back my covers, a mischievous glint in her eye. I eyed her suspiciously, whilst she grinned up at me.

"What -?"

"Isn't there someone – _anyone _– at Shiz that you wouldn't say no to spending an evening in a cupboard with?"

My eyes narrowed. She giggled in delight.

"_Please, _Elphie?! There must be someone!"

"Well, a cupboard's as good a place as any to strangle Avaric. Plenty of rope around. And I'm sure Doctor Dillamond wouldn't mind using it as an alternative classroom to lead his private tutorials in –"

"_Elphie._" She gave me another scowl – _she was getting a bit too fond of those_ – hands firmly planted on her hips and bearing down on me whilst I grinned, folding myself into bed and tucking the blanket in.

"Please. A _proper _answer." Her eyes were pleading, alight with hopeful curiosity. In the dimming firelight, they were bluer than ever; the colour of crushed cornflowers, Boq always said, and I had to admit, I could see where he got that from…odd, how I has always thought of her as so artificial, fake, false in every sense of the word. But there was a natural beauty here, as pure and good as all she told me she aspired to be. Yes…there was more to Miss Upland than I had ever thought there could be…that was for certain.

"Just…just think." Galinda bent close, leaning her elbows on the bed, all secretive and whispering. "If you absotively had to be in that cupboard I was in, last night…who would you want in there with you?"

A beat of silence, whilst I scowled up at her. Regardless, I felt my mind straying, playing over her words; _if you absotively had to be in that cupboard…_Fiyero's too-perfect face appeared in my mind, laughing that ridiculously overloud, carefree laugh all the girls loved to simper over…

I choked.

"No – no– this is madness, there's no one, no one in Shiz, no one in the entire world I would _ever…_"

"_No_ one_…_?" Her face fell.

"Miss Upland, I'm tired," I snapped, my tone biting, swiping away her smile. She bit her lip.

"I'm tired," I repeated, quieter, not quite meeting her eyes. "Please."

All that eager enthusiasm slid from her face like water. Pouting, she sidled away, back across the room and into her own bed. I stared very hard at the ceiling, watching the firelight dance and flicker. _Oz-damnit. _I sighed. Yes, I truly was a natural at breaking up conversation. The first snippet of something one might even refer to as _girl talk – _the very phrase made me cringe – and I had ruined it in about…oh, three minutes flat? _Brilliant, Elphaba. Just…brilliant. _

I heard Galinda shuffling around; the muffled thump of a fist against a pillow; a heavy sigh from her end, as well.

"Elphie?"

I gritted my teeth. "Miss Upland –"

"I just wanted to say goodnight."

Pause.

"Oh. All right. All right, go – go on."

A beat of silence. Then…

"Goodnight, Elphie. See you in the morning. Sweet dreams."

Sincerity rang in every syllable. I turned over, pulled the covers around my ears, closed my eyes. _Oz. _Knowing my luck, I would dream of nothing but Oz-damned cupboards all night.

_This friendship thing was going to take some getting used to…_

"You too, Galinda. You too."

"'Night."

"…night."


End file.
